this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024
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[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 180 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Star wars a new hope started out with Luke as an everyman. But since then it's all become about the bloodline. Rise of Skywalker is especially bad, tearing down the anyone can be special and saying you can only be special because of your bloodline.

[–] Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone 88 points 5 months ago (5 children)

The issue with the Star Wars story is that it can't end. This means Luke cannot have been very effective, because the same issues have to repeat historically to promote an endless cycle of protagonists and antagonists and battles that relate to the previous fan-favourites (because nostalgia sells).

Therefore Luke must simultaneously be an awesome hero, and also just some loser that didn't really do anything that worked.

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 53 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think legends handled it okay, that the battle of yavin was the tipping point, but the empire still had remnants that needed to be countered by the New Republic. And the New Republic has its own problems, but faces an entirely different threat than the empire too.

Whereas with the new movies, they just hit the reset button back to episode four, rather than developing on the trajectory in interesting ways, which would have given Luke's actions and the original trilogy more weight.

[–] Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 5 months ago (3 children)

The point of a successful Disney media franchise is not to provide nuance and provoke thought, but instead to sell merch for profit.

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[–] magic_lobster_party@kbin.run 38 points 5 months ago (1 children)

A new hope started with blood line. It was established out of the gate that Luke’s father was a Jedi knight and a good friend of Obi Wan.

Force Awakens and Last Jedi seemed to go in the direction that Rey and Snoke are unrelated to previous blood lines, but nope, it’s all Palpatine.

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[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 23 points 5 months ago (2 children)

They tried to fix it in the last Jedi, but the fans had too much of a tantrum.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 28 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, because just pretending the previous movie didn't happen is also a shitty solution.

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[–] Wxnzxn@lemmy.ml 83 points 5 months ago (2 children)

How about this story about a young English boy that gets bullied by the poo people, until he finds out he is actually super special. And then he fights the super specials that want society to be structured around birthright, because he has a special born fate to stop them. All while the super specials have used their amazing magical powers, able to literally mold reality to their whims, to create their own version of liberal capitalism.

[–] Hupf@feddit.de 71 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And after all that our bloke decides to become a copper.

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[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 13 points 5 months ago

That can be attributed to X-men and Harry Potter

But I'm sure there are more

[–] MoonMelon@lemmy.ml 54 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Wait, it's all just Arthurian legend? 🌍👨‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀

[–] OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml 36 points 5 months ago

It's all just the new testament. Before you fuck with poor people and nail them to a cross, make sure they aren't just slumming it, and actually have a very powerful father.

[–] TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee 53 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

No, no, you see, because she grew up as a Poo Person she now understand the world from their point and realizes how much they've been abused, so she pledges to lead and create a new society because it all turns out to have been a big misunderstanding. Then Poo People learn magitek and we get a sequel with the spin that now they are the oppressors, followed by a movie adaptation that completely ends up killing a cult classic.

[–] match@pawb.social 50 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The opposite of this is when Useless Loser Salaryman Was Born into The Other World As A Financial Consultant And Took It Over Using Only His Accounting Powers?!

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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 49 points 5 months ago (1 children)

In the fanfic sequel the poo people are kept addicted on magic-suppressing opioids and mind-dulling cigarettes provided by the Special owned industrial pharmaceutical companies. It's been this way so long

Eveyone knows people who don't smoke can't be trusted. The temple priests say so every Sunday service.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Captain Picard drops by, breaks the opioid machine, peaces out.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 48 points 5 months ago (25 children)

Is there fantasy that isn't like this

[–] mister_flibble@lemm.ee 69 points 5 months ago (2 children)

While it's definitely PRESENT in Lord of the Rings, one could argue Frodo himself is a subversion of it. Giving the ring to someone powerful would almost inevitably result in corrupting them and (depending on just how powerful they were) would just make a new big bad. Hobbits work as ring bearers explicitly because they're not "special".

[–] roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Bilbo is rich and Frodo is a nepobaby.

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[–] nik9000@programming.dev 11 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I've been listening to the Andy Serkis reading it lately. First experience since I was a kid. It's surprisingly nuanced for something so old and so baked into the popular culture. It's kind of amazing how flattened my memory of it from childhood is.

Dune as well. And Snowcrash too

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[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 children)

The basic options for magic are:

  • Sorcerers: Magic blood line or other innate gift of birth. Basically magic aristocracy.
  • Wizards: Usually anyone can be a wizard, its the magic equivelent of studying hard in college.
  • Warlocks: Anyone can be a warlock if they're willing to make a deal with the devil; the magic equivelent of dropping out to become a stripper.

Pretty much every fantasy has the magical aristocracy but the latter two are available to regular people in a lot of fantasies too, though wizardry is often gatekept and magical pacts tend to be for villains only.

[–] OrnateLuna@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I love comparing becoming a warlock to becoming a stripper

[–] swab148@startrek.website 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Especially since it doesn't have to be a devil per se, just any entity that's more powerful than you and willing to share.

That is to say: GOO-locks strip for C'thulu

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[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 15 points 5 months ago (4 children)

There must be.

Haven't read it, yet, but I have high hopes for the Earthsea books.

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[–] lorty@lemmy.ml 47 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Gotta make people accept that rich dynasties owning everything is valid.

[–] Wxnzxn@lemmy.ml 21 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I genuinely think the main ideological function isn't even as much to promote that, as it is to focus personal dreams and fantasies towards wanting to become a part of the "winners". Not that it isn't part of it, just by normalising it as status quo even within fantasies, but I think even more powerful is to have people fantasise about being one of the chosen ones eventually.

Quick reminder that stuff like this is not planned like in some conspiracy, but just a result of dynamics happening (almost exclusively, rare exceptions) unconsciously the way ideology springs from the material base.

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[–] uis@lemm.ee 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Once upon a time in a magical land of soviets people realized that dynasties owning everything was never valid.

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[–] dmalteseknight@programming.dev 42 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

I also dislike when the underdog genuinly starts off as an underdog and is just given a cheat code which is played off as "hard work and determination".

Like the main character of My Hero Academia. A person born without super powers in a world full of super heroes. You get excited at how he will overcome his limitations..... and the answer to that is be given the strongest power in that world and get even more super powers on top of that.

It is especially annoying how the surrounding characters act like it isn't a cheat code.

Funny thing is in that universe there is a character called Lemillion who had powers with drawbacks and had to learn to take advantage of them. A true underdog making the most of the cards he was dealth with. He should have been the MC of the show.

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[–] ealoe@ani.social 34 points 5 months ago

This captures why I don't enjoy Harry Potter (in addition to JKR being a shitter)

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 31 points 5 months ago

Where my shitfolk at? Poo Nation rise up ✊

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 28 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Heh, Korra is literally this, but being royal was a total coincidence. And I guess you could say she "reset" the reincarnation bloodline.

And I guess she subverts it a little too because she finds out so young, and is not shy about it.

And Ozai played with this too, deliberately marrying the descendent (Ursa) of a super special Poo Person (Avatar Roku) in hopes of producing superior children. And it kind of worked.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 5 months ago (2 children)

at least they explored the power dynamics, like yeah if some people are just mundane, some people can fucking shoot fire from their hands or make the ground swallow you whole, and ONE person is effectively just a god, then it makes sense for a lot of the mundane people to just want this all to stop because that's fucking terrifying.

But also there are (were?) things in the avatar universe that mitigate the power imbalance, like the avatars being raised to recognize that they have an extreme responsibility to use their powers wisely, and thanks to the whole reincarnation thing it'd presumably be difficult for the avatar to suddenly become evil since every previous avatar would screech at them and for all we know they could just force the avatar state to send the body to its death and exiting the avatar state just before death.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

thanks to the whole reincarnation thing it’d presumably be difficult for the avatar to suddenly become evil since every previous avatar would screech at them and for all we know they could just force the avatar state to send the body to its death and exiting the avatar state just before death.

There's an ATLA comic that kind of refutes this, where Aang just straight up shuts out Roku. It's... not the best comic.

Anyway, I think the idea is that the Avatar is fundamentally the same soul reincarnating, the same empathetic petty thief that stood up for anyone that was oppressed. That's just part of their nature, sometimes to a fault. Even Avatars with a screwed up childhood like Kyoshi and Korra turn out that way.

The mitigation is often the plot, where their power isn't particularly useful to solve their problems. A poignant example is when Korra just turns herself into Zaheer to save the Air Nomads, fully expecting to die (though the gravity is not very explicit since it's a kids show, as is true across both TV shows).

, and ONE person is effectively just a god,

Another thing I find amusing is that "common" people just treat the Avatar as some random joe, with lines like "Avatar, huh? We still have one of those?" or Bolin's grandma who clearly holds more reverence for the Earth Queen than the Avatar.

As far as fantasy series go, I think it does a good job of making all the Beautiful Special People feel mundane.

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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 5 months ago

This comic brought to you by the National Heritage Foundation.

[–] moshtradamus666@lemmy.world 25 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 43 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

This, or the humble royalty, is most fictional hero storylines. I unironically believe capitalism uses these tropes to condition the people into believing feudalism, authoritarianism, and genetic divinity are justifiable.

Remember! The rich are rich because they're better than you! Not because them or their ancestors were murderers, slave owners, exploiters, criminal sociopaths, etc.

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[–] bamfic@lemmy.world 21 points 5 months ago

Ugh star wars

[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 19 points 5 months ago (2 children)

How bout something in reverse? In Tales of the Abyss, the protag is set up to be someone special born in royal family, but turn out he's just a clone of an actual royal person and he have to learn to fight and accept this conflicting feeling for the rest of the game

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[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 15 points 5 months ago
[–] mlg@lemmy.world 15 points 5 months ago (5 children)

This central idea is why I hate dune.

Having a so called prophesied savior capable of insane things coming from a distant royal family of some space empire is too stupid to believe in.

You can't be both the underdog and the king at the same time, especially when your own supporters treat themselves as expendable.

[–] Emoba@discuss.tchncs.de 46 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Have you ever actually read it? The prophecies were deliberately spread over the universe by the Bene Gesserit. The department that does that is called the Missionaria Protectiva, they do that all over the universe so their members can manipulate the locals to be safe wherever they end up. This isn't supposed to glorify those prophecies, it's demystifying them to the point where religion as a whole is showcased as a mere tool to control the masses in later books. It's supposed to criticise the thing you're criticising.

[–] qarbone@lemmy.world 12 points 5 months ago

OP is why we can't have nice things. Because people will ignore things that should be obvious. So we're left with everything softball pitched to the lowest common denominator

[–] BedbugCutlefish@lemmy.world 34 points 5 months ago

I mean, that's the point of Dune? The 'prophesies' aren't real, they're seeded by the Bene Gesserit, the same group that spent millennia breeding the 'savior'. And, he's not meant to really be a savior, but their catspaw.

But also, he's definitely not actually a savior, on account of all the death he brings. It's complicated, but overall a deconstruction of white savior narratives and similar stories.

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[–] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 5 months ago

Can confirm, am poo person.

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